Kirsten Dunst's cathartic shoot

The actress has previously suffered with depression issues, and playing depressive character Justine in the Lars Von Trier-directed film helped her release some tension and "express" herself.

She said: "You don't have an opportunity to do roles like this very often. At the end, it definitely feels cathartic. It should. All movies that I do, I feel like I got to release sides of myself. The last film I did was a comedy and I got to play a real mean girl. I get so uncomfortable.

"It was so difficult for me to think where that comes from, but then you bring those things outside of yourself. It's fun to express those things. It's part of why I like what I do."

However, she admits she knew she would not be able to "get away" from the movie without doing a nude scene.

She added to the Examiner.com: "I knew that I wasn't going to be in a Lars Von Trier film and get away without doing a nude scene. Hey, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it in a Von Trier film. Why not? It looked so pretty.

"I knew the context it would be in, so it wasn't a surprise to me. Not that it's the most fun thing to do, but we joke about it and they close the set and they make it comfortable."